THE US administration was never told of doubts about the secret intelligence used to justify war with Iraq, former secretary of state Colin Powell told the BBC in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday night.

Mr Powell, who argued the case for military action against Saddam Hussein in the UN in 2003, told BBC News 24 television he was "deeply disappointed in what the intelligence community had presented to me and to the rest of us."

"What really upset me more than anything else was that there were people in the intelligence community that had doubts about some of this sourcing, but those doubts never surfaced to us," he said.

Mr Powell's comments follow US President George W. Bush's acceptance earlier this week of responsibility for going to war on intelligence, much of which "turned out to be wrong".

US involvement in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion has led to the loss of 2,140 of its troops and badly hit the Republican president's popularity.

The opposition Democrats have increased calls for a timetable for a military withdrawal.

But ahead of this week's parliamentary elections in Iraq, President Bush insisted he was still right to order the invasion and argued a hurried withdrawal would be "a recipe for disaster".

The British government, Washington's key allies in the invasion, has similarly refused to give a withdrawal date for its 8,000 or so troops in Iraq's four southern states, although has said it could happen next year.

For his part, Mr Powell considered the US military could not be deployed in Iraq at its current strength for years to come, raising the possibility of withdrawal from next year.

But he told the BBC that "essentially just to walk away, to say that we're taking all of our troops out as fast as we can, would be a tragic mistake". A US presence would be required in Iraq for "years", he added.

"We've invested a great deal in this country, and the Iraqi people deserve democracy and the freedom that they were promised when we got rid of Saddam Hussein and we have to stay with them... until they decide that they can get it now on their own, they don't need us any longer," he added.

"And even then, I suspect, there will be a continuing relationship and presence of some significance for some years to come."

In the interview, Mr Powell confirmed that White House "hawks" US Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had bypassed him and other colleagues on occasions.

Mr Powell's former chief-of-staff Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson made the damning allegations last month, accusing Cheney and Rumsfeld of running a "cabal" and hijacking US military and foreign policy.

Discussions with Rumsfeld about dealing with the aftermath of the Iraq invasion were "not pleasant", Mr Powell admitted in the interview.

All evidence and signs for years pointed to Saddam having WMD-s. He was given 6 months in addition to prove that his WMD were destroyed and to let the UN inspectors in and he didn't do it, he used that time to hide away and transport the WMD out of Iraq, to Syria.

I am really annoyed that people claim that just because we didn't find tons of WMD when we went into Iraq, they never existed.

If you lose something, or something is stolen, how would you like it, if the Insurance company says they won't pay, because the fact that you don't have it now is evidence that you never had it in the first place. If this sounds ridiculous, well, the exact same logic is being used in the case of the WMD: we didn't find them, after having given Saddam ample warning to hide them or dispose of them, therefore they never existed.

Kay: "I actually think the intelligence community owes the president (an explanation) rather than the president owing the American people (an explanation). You have to remember that this view of Iraq (that it had WMD) was held during the Clinton administration and didn't change in the Bush administration.

Kay said there was "a constant stream of trucks, cars, rail traffic" moving from Iraq to Syria. "We simply don't know what was moved," he said, adding, "The Syrian government has shown absolutely no interest in helping us resolve this issue."

he told NPR "I think it was reasonable to reach the conclusion that Iraq posed an imminent threat."

Kay: "I must say I actually think Iraq  what we learned during the inspections  made Iraq a more dangerous place potentially than in fact we thought it was even before the war."

I just don't know how a logical person could believe that Iraq did NOT have WMD after the friggin WORLD said he did.

What was Bush supposed to do, personally inspect Iraq himself with a magnifying glass, because Saddam surely was NOT providing evidence he had gotten rid of anything.It was up to Iraq to provide evidence of WMD destruction. they never did. BTW, who care about WMD, Iraq broke 14 UN resolutions, and repeatedly breached the ceasefire terms from the Gulf war.

Powell, is a Mcpainintheass loser, as well as all the MSM/dem, anti-war,CIA, State Dept. prix.

Do you realize it would make perfect sense if they were both simply . . . moderately pro Life? I think both are very slightly pro Choice . . . I think Rice and Powell have both said something about the calendar. Someone can dig this out. I think they were okay with the morning after pill but strongly opposed to abortion after a few weeks or something. This is far far more stringent than the Dems who are okay with killing right up to partial birth. But they both didn't draw the line at conception and that would make them uncomfortable for our hardliners to support.

OTOH, hell, if people are talking Guilliani and McCain . . . I think Rice and Powell are more pro Life than either.

But . . . God wouldn't it be nice to watch the left go utterly INSANE when they realize the first black ticket to be elected is Republican?

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